Guerrilla Toilet Plunger Bike Lanes Are Officially a Trend

An illegal bike lane crafted out of plumbing tools hit the streets in Providence—and the mayor is cool with it

Earlier this year, a protected bike lane popped up in Wichita, Kansas, that really pushed the boundaries of bike infrastructure—and plumbing supplies. A rogue group of bike advocates decorated a painted bike lane with a series of toilet plungers to create a guerilla protected lane, as protected bike lanes have better track records of keeping cyclists safe. Instead of simply taking down the plungers, the city responded to widespread support by springing for actual flexible posts to replace the plumbing hardware.

This simple way to 'unclog bike lanes' has most recently taken root in Providence, Rhode Island. Last week, Jeffrey Leary—part of an advocacy group called Reasonable RI—created a protected lane on Fountain Street with 72 Dollar Store toilet plungers wrapped in reflective tape for visibility. What's more, the mayor is totally on board with the creative solution to a dangerous problem.

"The City won’t remove them unless they impede traffic on the street," Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza's spokesperson Emily Crowell told Streetsblog. "This summer the City is looking into ways to better delineate the lanes such as painting, flower beds, and flexible posts." (Give the new cyclists in your life a better chance at riding confidently with The Bicycling Big Book of Cycling for Beginners!)

Stay safer in traffic by making left turns like this:

Leary told various news sources that his rationale for adding the plungers to the side of the bike lane was to keep his nine-year-old daughter safer while she pedals.

"I certainly would never allow her to ride in the streets in Providence," Leary told the Providence Journal. "That would scare me to death.”

Leary says the bike lanes in Providence, while delineated by painted lines, are often just places where drivers wait or double-park—so for a cyclist, it's hard to ever feel truly safe.

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